


Touch

by Apetslife



Category: Popslash
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Phobias
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-03
Updated: 2012-02-03
Packaged: 2017-10-30 13:01:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/331998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Apetslife/pseuds/Apetslife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Justin freaked out when strangers tried to touch him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Touch

It didn't happen all the time, just every so often. They all understood it, all sympathized, but it was scary anyway. Someone, usually JC, would run shouting for Joey, because Joey was the only one big enough to hold Justin when he got like that. The only one Justin would even let try.

It was always unexpected. Makeup trailer. Impersonal, professional hands all over them. Lance was eating M&Ms, trying to remember the new steps for 'Gone,' the ones they'd come up with because JC'd said that standing too close to Chris lately was ruining his happy vibe. Chris had rolled his eyes and sneered, and asked why JC needed a happy vibe for a depressing-ass song like "Gone," but JC had gotten the new setup, and now Lance had to remember it. He looked down the line of seats, pretty boys all in a row, him and Justin and JC. Someone was dabbing pancake on his forehead, and it itched.

"Oh, nasty. This one's peanut!" He spat it out, and scowled when JC made a disgusted noise.

"We don't need to see that, Lance."

"You know I hate peanuts."

"Still. Just eat the thing. It won't kill you."

"How do you know? I read somewhere that a dislike for certain things may be your body's way of warning you of an allergy or something. I could swell up, go into anticlimactic shock-"

"-anaphylactic, Lance-"

"-whatever, swell up and die."

"I doubt it."

"Still. Do you want to take that-"

"Get OFF me." Justin, in a voice they almost never heard. Oh, shit. He and JC both snapped around to look. Justin was shoving at the makeup girl, a new one, Missi? Oh, shit, she wouldn't know...she reached out again with the little makeup sponge, and was knocked flat when Justin surged to his feet, hands in fists at his sides. "I SAID, get the FUCK off me!" His teeth were bared, and he looked furious, and the poor girl was just stunned. Not hurt, but she looked like she was wondering where the nice polite southern boy she'd just met had gone. Lance could sympathize.

"Justin, hey..." JC, at his most soothing, but he shot a quick frightened glance at Lance, and Lance nodded, and was up and out of the trailer at a run.

"Joey, Joey, Joey!" He had to find Joey before Justin did something that would get him into another lawsuit. Joe's trailer was empty. Chris's...there he was, when Lance slammed through the door. Chris was on his lap, smiling like he so rarely did anymore. Joey was telling some funny story, Lance could tell by the way he was waving his free arm around. The big hand stroking Chris's hair probably wasn't hurting either, and he almost hated to interrupt them, but-

"Joey, you gotta come. Justin's...and there's a new makeup girl, and C's with them, but you gotta-"

Chris scrambled off of Joey's lap as Lance kept babbling, and Joey was up and past him and on the way to the makeup trailer without a word.

Chris and Lance stared at each other in the sudden silence.

"I thought he wasn't gonna do that anymore. He PROMISED." Chris's voice was small. Worried and upset and helpless.

"I don't think he can help it, Chris."

They'd sat down to try to figure it out, after the first few times it had happened, on the NSA tour. Justin had apologized sweetly, but JC had still been panicking, and Chris wasn't much better. It had something to do with the fact that strangers were always touching them, Lance thought. And Justin had grown up with it, had been manhandled in and out of costumes, had been treated like a doll, had had strange hands covering him in makeup and toying with his hair and poking at his body. Since he'd been a baby. Normal people--and Lance could vaguely remember being a normal person, if he tried hard enough--limited personal contact with strangers to a handshake. Justin was not so lucky.

Factor in the thousands of screaming fans reaching for him everywhere he went, and it just...got to Justin, sometimes, and he snapped, and couldn't bear it any more. It was like their hands burned him. He lashed out, that famous Timberlake temper roaring out of control, and God help them all if Joey wasn't around. That girl in the hotel...Lance winced to remember it. It hadn't been about Nick Carter. Justin liked Nick Carter, and didn't feel any particular rivalry with him. The girl had just grabbed his arm at the wrong time, and Justin hadn't hurt her, he wouldn't hurt anyone, but he'd scared her pretty good.

He sighed, and settled down next to Chris, let Chris lean into him, warm and solid and worried.

"We've only got two hours till the show, Lance. He's never...you know...this close to a show."

"I know. Joey will fix it." He dropped a kiss on Chris's forehead.

"You think?"

"Yeah."

***

"Hey, JC." He'd never been so glad to hear Joey in his life. He'd managed to get the makeup people out of the trailer, with a comforting pat to Missi's back, and he was standing by the door, attempting to keep Justin inside.

"Joe, hey. Come on in. Welcome to the madhouse." Justin just snarled.

Justin had already managed to throw just about everything in the trailer that wasn't bolted down. JC knew better than to try to stop him. He was pacing, now, both hands holding his head, where before he'd have had them fisted in his hair. Looking big and angry, one giant raw exposed nerve. Joey sighed, nodded at JC, and moved past him into the chaos inside.

"Justin."

Justin ignored him, and Joey moved closer.

"Justin. Stop pacing. Justin. Look at me." JC had always wondered how Joey could do that with his voice. All the love in the world, right there in those few words. And Justin stopped, and looked at him. Blue eyes, huge with tears.

"Oh, baby. Come here." Joey took that last step, and folded Justin into his arms. JC held his breath. Sometimes Justin would kick and scream and Joey would have to hold him hard until he relaxed. Sometimes he'd freeze and go rigid and Joey would need to kiss and coax him back to life. This time, though, Justin kind of collapsed, looking small and lost with all the rage gone out of him, and clung to Joey suddenly and convulsively.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just, her hands, she was, she wouldn't, TOUCHING, Joe, I'm so sorry..."

"Shhh, shhhhh." Joey just wrapped Justin up, and lowered them down onto the low couch, and let him cry. Made soothing noises, and JC sighed, and let himself relax, and lean back against the closed trailer door. He was on guard duty now, and he knew it. This was...not something that would be easily understood by outsiders.

Joey's hand was under Justin's shirt now, making long sweeps up and down the groove of his spine. Justin made a low hurting sound, and sniffled, and burrowed deeper into Joey, burying his face in Joey's neck, arms wrapped almost desperately around Joey's waist. From his place behind Joey, JC could see Justin's blotchy, tear-streaked cheeks, tight-closed eyes. Pink tongue, when it extended to lick at Joey's throat. Joey rumbled something low, gently pulled at Justin's shirt, got it off, and bent to suck and kiss at soft skin and sharp blade of collarbone, Justin still curled onto his lap, looking boneless now.

JC watched, breath a little short, wondered when it had started, when Joey had realized that the fastest way to bring Justin back from that scary place was to touch him with love. Joey was their heart, he knew. The one who would hold Chris through tears, kiss JC out of his panicked incomprehension and worry when it struck, tease stiff Lance into blushing smiles and giggles, then hug him till he squeaked. If anyone could make Justin know, in his skin and bones, that he was being held by someone who loved him, Joey could.

Joey bent Justin back onto the couch, big hands gentle on his ribcage, and Justin was panting now, but not with sobs, and Joey swallowed them into his own mouth. JC shifted uncomfortably, his leather show pants suddenly too tight. Justin wrapped endless long legs up around Joey's waist, linking his ankles, and moaned. Joey was big and solid, looming over him, moving gently against him, and JC could barely see Justin under him at all. There was a constant low murmur of Joey's voice, interrupted by small kisses, telling Justin that it was ok, that he was safe, that Joey loved him, JC loved him, Lance and Chris loved him. That they wouldn't let anyone touch him.

Someone knocked on the trailer, startling JC out of his stare.

"GO AWAY." He heard footsteps retreat. Joey and Justin never even looked up.

"Here...Justin..." Joey's hands were clever, JC knew, and he wasn't surprised when Justin kicked off suddenly unfastened pants, and Joey's slid down his hips. Oh...and Joey's shirt was gone, cast aside. Wide, broad back, muscles shifting with a bunch and slide every time he moved, twisting in his lower back as he ground down into Justin. Justin's bare knee slid up Joey's side, a foot resting on his hip, looking pale and vulnerable against the darkness of Joey's skin. JC bit his tongue. Wondered what Joey was doing with his mouth and hands, to make Justin whimper like that.

"Easy...easy..." JC watched every muscle clench, sweat-slick, as Joey lowered his head, angled his hips, and grunted as he slid forward. Justin keened, long and high and strange, and that foot slid to the small of Joey's back, pulling him in. Then it was just slide and thrust, and moaning, their voices blending, Joey a shade below Justin, but beautiful. They were beautiful, JC knew, in the small part of his brain that wasn't a red haze of heat. Joey rode the motion when Justin bucked up into him, falling into a gentle, sexy rythm, easy in its simplicity. Justin hissed when he came, big hands scrabbling at Joey's shoulders, his back, nails leaving trails of red on Joey's skin, and Joey followed him over with a low shout, and collapsed down onto him, panting.

More murmurs and petting, and JC could breathe again, though the air tasted of sex and tears and greasepaint. He breathed deep, letting his shoulders settle back against the door. Watched as they groped for clothes on the floor between little butterfly kisses, and saw the sunshine smile on Justin's face, the easy way Joey moved in the absense of tension. He was smiling himself as he saw them fully clothed, still kissing, and he slipped out of the trailer.

"Is he..." Chris looked very young when he was worried.

JC shrugged, ignored the heat that was still burning in his gut. "Oh, he's fine now. Joey fixed it." He was maybe blushing a little.

Lance looked relieved, then peered at him. "JC...you did leave them alone, right?"

JC looked at him like he was insane. "Are you kidding? Anyone could've walked-"

"WHOO!" Chris hooted, and flung himself into Lance's lap. "JC watched AGAIN!"

"Like you don't." JC grumbled. Blushed. Looked for water, or something to occupy his hands.

"True. Well." Lance was cuddling Chris now. JC rolled his eyes at them. "We've still got an hour before soundcheck, for Joey to get his makeup on him."

Chris sobered. "Do you...sometimes wonder that it's not good for him? I mean. If he's ok? That's just not normal..."

JC gave up, nerves still strung tight and jangling from Justin's outburst, and flopped next to them for some love of his own.

"As long as we have Joey, he'll be ok." His hand reached for Chris's.

"Yeah. We'll be ok." Lance held Chris tighter.

"OK." JC let his head drop to Lance's shoulder.

OK.

[end]


End file.
